IMPACT COMPENSATION
We minimise the impact on nature and the landscape during the grid expansion. Unavoidable interventions are compensated in other areas, as stipulated by the Federal Nature Conservation Act. However, our measures go beyond the legal requirements: as a pioneer of the climate-neutral energy system, we see nature conservation as part of our corporate mission.
WESEL ON THE LOWER RHINE
In 2018, Amprion acquired an area of around 19 hectares in Dinslaken (Wesel) for the construction of the power line project from Wesel to Utfort (Moers). The land, which had previously been drained and used intensively for arable farming, was redesigned as part of an eco-account*. This included the asset of a meadow orchard, the reforestation of a climate-resistant mixed oak-hornbeam forest and the sowing of a site-appropriate grassland mixture that is typical of the region and has a high proportion of insect-friendly perennials.
Avoiding chemical weed control and artificial nutrient inputs is the top priority here. The aim is to maintain a high level of biodiversity and counteract nitrogen deposition into the soil and the neighbouring watercourse.
Another part of this project is located in Wesel-Obrighoven on an area of around three hectares, part of which belongs to a fauna-flora habitat area (FFH area). FFH areas are protected areas that serve to protect habitat types in accordance with the EU Directive. Together with the European bird sanctuaries, they form the Natura 2000 network.
Here, old forest stands are taken out of conventional forestry utilisation in order to increase the proportion of deadwood and the potential for hollow trees. Both areas generate around 900,000 ecopoints**.
PLETTENBERG IN THE SAUERLAND REGION
A 51-hectare plot of land in Plettenberg (Märkischer-Kreis) was acquired in 2018 for the construction of the 380kV extra-high-voltage overhead line from Dortmund-Kruckel to Dauersberg in Rhineland-Palatinate. Various measures are being implemented here, such as the avoidance of establishing an alluvial forest and the conversion of intensive arable land into extensive grassland. The introduction of nutrients is prohibited on the entire area in order to reduce nitrogen deposition into the soil and water. Over one million ecopoints have been generated across the entire complex. Species such as grass snakes, kingfishers, dippers, black storks, damselflies and red-backed shrikes can now be found here regularly.
AMMERLAND IN THE IPWEGER MOOR
In the course of the grid connection of the offshore wind farms, there will be impacts on the soil and biotopes in the Wadden and Marshes nature reserve. To compensate this impact, Amprion has acquired a 48-hectare rhododendron nursery on a drained moorland site in Ammerland. This area will be restored to a near-natural water balance by closing the drainage ditches. Subsequently, a typical moorland forest will be reforested in the western part. Wet grassland with temporary small water bodies will be created in the neighbouring open land, which already provides a habitat for bird species such as lapwing and redshank. This will create at least 1.2 million eco-points.
*An eco-account is the term used to describe the targeted advance stockpiling of compensation and replacement measures that can be offset as compensatory measures in the event of subsequent interventions in nature and the landscape. With the help of the eco-account, compensatory and replacement measures are carried out, documented and managed in advance until they can be allocated to a later intervention.
** The value of an eco-account is expressed in eco-points. One eco-point corresponds to the compensation requirement of one square metre.
